Crime Time

Colleyville mom accused of leading costly pranks

Tara Mauney, a 41-year-old mother from Colleyville, is accused of leading eight middle school students through a series of juvenile pranks on local homes.

Included are writing graffiti on outside walls and placing raw chicken in a mailbox that caused almost $6,000 worth of damage to one home.

It's all set out inan arrest warrant affidavit for Mauney. She was arrested several days after the incident in July and charged with criminal mischief between $1,500 and $20,000.

Mauney, who is free on $7,500 bail, has declined to comment, other than to say that "the kids have retracted some statements.

Read what other people are saying in this report by Domingo Ramirez Jr.

 

Disturbed woman tried to 'mug' the 'Mona Lisa'

The "Mona Lisa" nearly got mugged recently.

It seems a woman who police said was "not in her senses" lobbed a mug at Leonardo da Vinci's iconic painting, which hangs in the Louvre museum in Paris. The painting, however, is protected by bulletproof glass and no damage was done.

The woman was arrested and is under psychiatric care, police said.

-- Lance Murray

2nd U.S. flag burned by vandals at home of retired Marine

For the second time in just weeks, vandals burned the American flag that was flying outside the home of a retired U.S. Marine in north Dallas, the Dallas Morning News reports.

The first flag was burned on June 29 and the second one was burned on Sunday night, the paper reports. The first burning ignited patriotic fervor among the paper's readers, and ex-Marine Ed Jordan, 70, received numerous offers to replace the flag, including one from entertainer Kid Rock, the paper reported.

-- Lance Murray

Readers enthralled with 'Hummer' case

The story about the 72-year-old Southlake man who has confessed to keying a lot of Hummers continues to get a lot of reader attention.

James A. Jeppe told police he was frustrated by family and financial issues, but he also railed against the "carbon footprint" left by the big sports utility vehicles.

An arrest warrant affidavit in the case -- always great reading if you can get your hands on one -- shows how Southlake detectives made their case.

Meanwhile, however, Star-Telegram columnist Bud Kennedy writes that there's plenty "haywire" with this story. Read Bud's complete column here.

Hummers get 'keyed' a lot, police say

Police in Southlake have not yet identified the silver-maned man seen on a surveillance video scratching X’s on both sides of a 2008 Hummer in the parking lot at Carroll Senior High School.

Nevertheless, officers have received more than 24 tips from callers about the man in video, which you can see here.

"We’re checking every call," said Southlake Officer Roderick Page, "but we haven’t been able to identify him.”

Police released the video and photographs of the man (right) to the news media, hoping someone would recognize him. The Sept. 5 incident caused $2,220 damage to the vehicle, which is owned by a student, police said.

Meanwhile, Page said, the “keying” of Hummers (like those shown above) and other vehicles has been a problem in the city for the past two years. In that time, about 24 vehicles have been targeted, he said.

Of those, 12 have been Hummers, Page said.

“The X’s have been used a few times and sometimes it’s just been a straight line,” Page said. “We’ve also had obscene words written on vehicles with a key.”

-- Staff Writer Domingo Ramirez Jr. reports.

Man 'keys' kid's Hummer; $2,200 damage estimated

When you hear about vandalism on campus, you might reasonably think kids did it.

Not this time.

Southlake police have released a motion-activated video surveillance of the "keying" of a 2008 Hummer in the parking lot of Carroll Senior High School.

But this vandal didn't look like he just got out of class.

He appeared, instead, to have just left the golf course.

The video (right) shows a man about 50 to 60 years-old with short, white hair, wearing dark sunglasses, a dark-colored shirt with horizontal stripes, tan shorts and sandals.

The incident happened about 11:40 a.m. on Sept. 5 in the school parking lot, 1501 West Southlake Boulevard.

His key work caused $2,220 damage to the vehicle which was owned by a student, police said.

Staff Writer Domingo Ramirez Jr. reports.

Oh, and click here to watch the video.

We'll bet the surveillance video is a real sight!

Here's one where a cover-up might have been appropriate.

Did the suspect have any distinguishing features?

OK, enough of the puns.

Still, the details of this crime might better be left to your imagination: a naked man on a vandalism spree. Police in Pennsylvania say that Nicholas Hadzick, 28, is in custody charged with risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief, open lewdness, public drunkenness and related counts. He is at Lancaster County Prison on $200,000 bail, police said.

Hadzick is accused of damaging a hotel and a store, where he trashed office space and reportedly drove a forklift into an interior wall -- all in the buff.

You can read more here.

-- Lance Murray

Grapevine High School vandalized again

For the second time in the past year, Grapevine High School was broken into and vandalized, police said.

Two men, who appear on surveillance video to be teenagers, donned camouflage while they trashed the school office and opened a water valve in a hallway, police said.

Read more about it here.

--Mark Agee

Police pursue leads in Southlake 'Christmas Massacre' video

Holiday fun. Christmas joy.

A weekend vandalism spree in Southlake that two teens captured on video and posted on YouTube had none of that.

Read Staff Writer Melissa Vargas' account of how police have zeroed in on suspects in the case of "The Christmas Massacre Ryan and James," video and the effect the episode had on a Southlake family. The video has been removed from YouTube.

-- Lance Murray

Impressionism: Vandal's punch rips Monet painting

Last week we reported on the recovery by police of a priceless painting by Leonardo da Vinci. This week the art world is stunned by the vandalism of a painting by impressionist painter Claude Monet as it was hanging in a Paris museum.

French Culture Minister Christine Albanel says that a group of young people, possibly drunk, broke into the Orsay Museum and one of them punched the painting titled, "Le Pont d'Argenteuil."

The punch left about a 4-inch tear in the painting. Read more about the case here.

-- Lance Murray